Exploring destination engagement of sharing economy accommodation: case of Australian second-homes

Digital platforms operating in the colloquially termed sharing economy (SE) are disrupting tourism, notably accommodation with growth in peer-to-peer (P2P) rentals. Second-home rentals constitute an important segment of SE ‘entire homes’ as revealed by Airbnb, SE’s largest accommodation platform, with over seven million listings in 2019. Concurrent to SE micro-accommodation growth, global tourism organizations promote local engagement of all tourism enterprises to build sustainable destinations. Lack of understanding SE second-home engagement in destination networks and development activities is a significant knowledge gap. In response, this qualitative study explores regional tourism engagement of numbers of SE second-homes to help achieve local destination management organizations’ (DMOs) sustainable development goals. Research methods incorporate three Australian regional cases using interviews, web observations and secondary data to investigate perspectives of destination engagement of second-home rentals. Findings uncover power shifts in case regions that have created vacuums in local tourism ecosystems now being filled by Airbnb and accommodation platforms. Analysis of factors influencing engagement in destination development activities indicates second-home localized marketing and collaborative efforts are eroding under current tourism business models.